Until recently, restaurants used punch cards and plastic cards for their loyalty programs. Today, many are replacing traditional card-based loyalty programs with mobile loyalty apps.

In this article, we focus on how restaurant loyalty apps can be used to build customer loyalty. We demonstrate this with examples of the world’s top food chains. We also outline must-have features and conclude with useful tips on how to set up an effective loyalty program. But first, let’s talk about why restaurants should go mobile for building customer loyalty.

Benefits of mobilized loyalty

Still hesitant to start a digital loyalty program? Let’s briefly consider the benefits of building loyalty through a mobile app.

Ease of use. For 43% of shoppers surveyed by CodeBroker, plastic loyalty cards are the biggest obstacle to enjoying a loyalty program. By offering your restaurant visitors a digital loyalty program, you can simplify the customer experience.

Personalized experience. Plastic loyalty cards fail at developing effective communication and strong long-term relationships with your visitors. Customer loyalty apps, on the contrary, can help you build personalized and unique content that’s relevant to your customers. This can be custom birthday wishes, special offers, and other incentives. Additionally, a loyalty app enables you to reach out to customers anytime and anywhere.

Customer data. Apps let you easily gather valuable insights about your customers, such as their preferences, purchasing behavior, and demographics. This data can help you deliver personalized offers.

Sense of exclusivity. Who doesn’t like to feel that they’re part of an exclusive team? With a mobile loyalty app, you can share exclusive news, content, offers, coupons, and promotions, which fosters a sense of uniqueness. Plus, you can give your customers a voice to make them feel like they belong – for example, through social media, forums, and feedback forms.

Examples of top restaurant loyalty programs in mobile apps

Real-world restaurant loyalty programs are the perfect place to get inspired with ideas for your own business. Using examples from the best restaurant brands, we can draw up a list of features and key ingredients to include in your loyalty app.

Chick-fil-A

Chick-fil-A is one of the biggest fast food chains in the US, with over 2,300 restaurants. In 2016, they launched Chick-fil-A One ― a new app that replaced the restaurant’s previous app.

With the new Chick-fil-A One app, users can:

Order on the go, pick up orders at their convenience, and skip the line at the register

Earn points by ordering at Chick-fil-A, ordering through the app, ordering catering online, and scanning the in-app QR code in the drive-thru or at the register

Member — Anyone who joins Chick-fil-A One. Members receive 10 points per $1 spent. Points can be redeemed on food rewards, and members get birthday rewards and other rewards from their local Chick-fil-A restaurant.

Silver — Members who reach 1,000 points within a year. Apart from the benefits that regular members get, Silver members receive 11 points per $1 spent and can gift rewards to family and friends and donate meals to Feeding Children Everywhere.

Red — Members who reach 5,000 points within a year. Red members receive 12 points per $1 spent and are able to enjoy the Chick-fil-A backstage tour, get Chick-fil-A College Football Hall of Fame tickets, and be the first to know about new insider content and menu items.

Starbucks

Starbucks provides another great example of a loyalty program. The Starbucks coffeehouse chain has been operating in the US since 1971. Their journey in the mobile app world started in 2009. The first Starbucks app by mFoundry was a payment app that was accepted at only 16 Starbucks locations. At the time, the app operated only on iPhones and used QR codes. Later, Starbucks moved to in-house development to bring in-app payment capabilities to their initial Starbucks app. In 2016, they combined their app with their loyalty program. The company says their rewards members have driven around 40% of US sales since the loyalty program was launched.

Chili’s

Chili’s is a popular American bar and grill chain that operates in 49 states and 32 countries. In 2015, they launched a fully digital loyalty program ― My Chili’s Rewards ― that can be accessed through their app, website, and restaurant Ziosks, or tabletop kiosks.

Earn points (1 point for every dollar spent) and track them. Points remain active if a customer visits a Chili’s at least once every four months and spends at least $5 each time. To encourage frequent visits, Chili’s offers loyal customers (namely, those who visit Chili’s once every 60 days) a free non-alcoholic drink or chips and salsa.

Get bonus points by completing special challenges

Redeem points for free menu items

Order meals for pickup

Pay for orders

Reorder favorites with one tap

Find the nearest Chili’s restaurant and get directions

Save favorite menu items and favorite locations

Dunkin’ Donuts

Dunkin’ Donuts is a US-based international fast food restaurant that was founded in 1950. According to WorldAtlas, Dunkin’ Donuts is the eighth biggest quick service restaurant chain. In 2014, they launched their rewards program ― called DD Perks ― that can be accessed online and through a mobile app.

Features to include in your loyalty program app

Based on the examples we’ve just outlined, let’s highlight the main functionality that these world-famous restaurant loyalty programs have in common.

Feature

Description

Rewards

The main features in any loyalty app are the ability to earn, track, and redeem points. Be clear on what actions you’re going to reward customers for (we’ll talk about this later) and how many points you’ll give them for particular actions. To motivate customers to actively participate in your loyalty program, offer them challenges so they can earn bonus points.

Order in advance

Your customers will definitely appreciate the ability to order ahead and pick up orders at their convenience, skipping the lines. The order flow will look like this: choose a location (if you have a restaurant chain) ⟶ add items to the cart ⟶ select a pickup time ⟶ submit the order ⟶ pay. Don’t forget to include a menu with images and detailed descriptions. Also, you can allow customers to add notes to orders.

Order customization

You can allow customers to customize items by adding or removing ingredients.

Payments

Providing quick and smooth payment options in your loyalty app is a necessity. To learn more about adding mobile payments to your app, read about the top online payment services: Stripe, Braintree, and PayPal.Also, consider integrating a QR code scanner to allow customers to pay quickly with your app using QR codes.

A blog to share the latest news from your company and breaking stories. This will engage customers and market your brand.

Social media integration to allow users to connect their social network accounts with their loyalty profiles. Also, you can reward users when they share your content (such as special offers or company news) on social media and refer friends.

Geolocation-based search (if you have a restaurant chain). This will enable users to find a nearby location and special offers nearby.

Ratings and feedback to get insights into how to improve your app, service, or menu.

Tips for creating and running a successful restaurant loyalty program

If designed properly, a loyalty program can be an effective means of providing great customer experience and driving repeat sales. To help you build and run a successful rewards program, we’ve prepared some tips. Enjoy!

#1 Decide what actions to reward

Before launching your loyalty program, make sure you clearly define what you’ll reward customers for. For example, you can reward them for signing up for your loyalty program, making their first purchase, every dollar spent at your restaurant, their birthdays, and promoting your restaurant on social media.

#2 Deliver a personalized customer experience

Customers expect personalization. According to the 2017 State of Personalization Report by Segment, 44% of customers suppose they will become repeat buyers if they have a personalized customer experience.

Providing customers with rewards isn’t enough. Create real value for each customer and show them you care by giving away menu items they love or offering a discount on their favorites. At Starbucks Happy Hour, guests can get 50% off their favorite menu items.

#3 Listen to your customers

When customers know that you take their opinions into account and take action on their feedback, their loyalty will increase. And so will your sales. Let your guests share their thoughts and experiences on your app, menu, and service. This can help you direct your loyalty program strategy and improve your service.

#4 Keep it simple

Create a rewards program that’s accessible. Let’s take Starbucks as an example. With their old rewards system, customers needed to earn 300 stars within a year before they could redeem them for free items (other than birthday gifts and drink refills). Once customers got at least 300 stars, they could get free menu items for every 125 stars. Gold members could also earn more points on double-star days, which occurred once a month. However, Starbucks realized their loyalty system was too confusing and that a lot of people gave up on joining it when they discovered they wouldn’t get anything until they earned 300 stars. So they decided to simplify things. With the new system, customers can get free refills at 25 stars and free drinks at 50 stars with no 300-star minimum.

If you have any questions on how to create your own loyalty card app or if you want to find restaurant app developers to start one, message us. Meanwhile, we suggest you check out our portfolio of custom restaurant apps to see what we’ve built so far.